DEBBIE and Colin's romance began at a nightclub where scores of Brummies met for the first time.

Debbie, then just 17, and Colin, 22, had gone along to the Powerhouse nightclub in Hurst Street, long since closed and now Oceana.

They quickly became a couple and, a few years later, decided to try for children.

"We both knew we wanted children," recalls Debbie, now 37.

"We tried for a year and then began to be a bit worried. I was anxious so we both went for checks. I had an investigative laporoscopy and they told me I had blocked tubes from pelvic inflammatory disease."

There was still hope at the time that surgery could help them have a child and Debbie underwent an operation to clear one of her tubes.

But there more heartache was round the corner.

"Colin was convinced I was pregnant but I had to go to the doctor for some checks," she remembers.

"They told me I was pregnant, but it was an ectopic pregnancy. So on the same day I discovered I was pregnant, I also had it removed."

Then the Great Barr couple got the news they had been dreading - that they would not be able to conceive naturally.

Over the next few years they endured four cycles of IVF, one at a clinic in Birmingham and three at Midland Fertility Services in Aldridge. But none was successful.

"It was a really emotional and stressful time for us," says Debbie.

"We received fantastic support from our families, who really helped us, but it is so difficult facing constant hope then disappointment.

"In the end we were just worn out by it and decided we couldn't go through it all again. We thought, 'That's it, we will never have kids and now we need to move on and get on with our lives'."

Which is what they did.

Both continued in their careers: Debbie is now a legal secretary while 42-year-old Colin manages a security company.

Both enjoyed sport and spent time with their nieces and nephews.

But they also knew that when Debbie's eggs had been harvested at MFS, there were ten successfully fertilised eggs left which were being kept on ice.

"Every year we received an invoice and we knew they were there," says Debbie.

"They are only supposed to keep them for ten years and we knew the expiry date was coming up."

Luckily, Colin kept bringing up the subject of whether they should have another go - though Debbie was reluctant.

"I felt we had moved on with our lives and I didn't want that disappointment again," she admits.

"Plus, we knew that if we did have a child it would mean a really big change for our lives."

Yet the temptation to give it one more go was too strong and the couple returned to

"I went in to Colin and asked him to double check.

"It is hard to explain how we felt. How can I say how ecstatically happy we were? And there was also disbelief that it had finally happened.

"I went through all that Christmas feeling sick and it was so nerve-racking. I didn't want to do anything in case it caused me problems. I wouldn't life anything, I didn't want to move anything just in case. When we went for the first scan at six weeks and we could see that little heartbeat. It was the size of a pea, it was amazing."

But Debbie's problems were not over as an eight-week scan revealed an unidentified mass which needed further investigation.

"I was sent to Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield where they feared it was an ectopic pregnancy as I had had two embryos implanted," she says.

"They warned me an ectopic pregnancy could kill me and they wanted to do investigative surgery, but I wouldn't let them in case I lost the baby. So instead they just kept monitoring it. Afterwards they found that it was a fibroid." Even at the last hurdle, Debbie faced problems when, after four days of contractions, she could not dilate and there was a risk of their baby becoming distressed.

So she underwent a Caesarean section - and the couple were finally handed their little miracle.

"And there she was, this little girl. We both looked at her and could not believe it," says Debbie.

"We decided to call her Shani Ashley - Shani because it is Swahili for 'marvellous' and Ashley named after my nephew Stephen Ashley Dorn, who died of sudden infant death syndrome."

And now enjoying every minute of Shani's life, the couple are keen to give their baby a brother or sister.

"There are still five eggs there and we have been we could try again," says Debbie. "When I held Shani I knew I had an incredible urge to have another child. I look at her and I think those embryos could be someone like her."